A’s get good news on Josh Reddick, Henderson Alvarez
SEATTLE — Oakland’s medical report is a depressing affair more often than not this season.
On Monday, however, the team got relatively good news about two of the 13 men crowded onto its disabled list.
Josh Reddick, who’s hitting .322, does not need surgery to repair his fractured left thumb, which makes the healing time four weeks rather than six.
[...] right-hander Henderson Alvarez, who had a setback in his return from shoulder surgery last week, was cleared to begin playing catch Tuesday.
“It will be a little bit of a process coming back and we’re going to be careful,” manager Bob
Dr. James Andrews, who performed Alvarez’s surgery in July, gave the OK after reviewing an MRI exam that the A’s medical staff had described as “inconclusive,” an indication that Andrews doesn’t believe there is any major structural issue.
[...] baseman Jed Lowrie (shin) is expected to come off the DL on Wednesday and catcher Josh Phegley on Friday.
Zach Neal, who made his big-league debut for Oakland this month while working in an emergency long-man stint at Boston, will start Wednesday at Seattle in Sonny Gray’s spot in the rotation.
Gray was placed on the DL on Sunday with a trapezius strain, and might be unavailable for more than 15 days because, as Melvin noted, Gray will need to resume his throwing program and also get in at least one rehab outing.
Neal, 27, is 5-1 with a 2.53 ERA at Triple-A Nashville.
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
The A’s have 13 men on the disabled list for the first time since at least 1979.